Al-Baqarah 271: How good it is if you spend for charity openly. However, if you spend in private for the poor, it is better for you and it will cover some of your misdeeds. Allah is aware of what you are doing.

If you give charity openly, how good that is, it says, how good.

If you give it secretly to the poor, that is even better for you. And it covers some of your sins; Allah Almighty is aware of what you do, it says.

Our child Sultan says: May Allah be pleased with you, Hodja. And with all of us, my dear. Giving charity openly is good, it says. Why? Especially in these times, those who call people who do good fools, who say 'you've been swindled', these are people who long for material things and whom Satan frightens with stinginess.

Those who do not see, those who are blind, who want to show the way to those who can see. These, sir, what do they say? 'I've been swindled.' 'Does he deserve this help?' they say. Whereas that person doing it openly is to encourage the others to do good. That is the intention. If I am helping a person by showing it to those around, showing it, or rather, I do not put him on display before the people around, but they know his situation, and I come among those people and say, 'My child, what do you need?' And he says, 'Hodja, the situation is like this, like this, like this.' They hear him, but those around hear it too.

'All right, my child, I will give you this. Take this money, manage with it for now. And tomorrow come to this address, let me meet your need.' Now they are hearing this. How beautiful, an encouragement to do good. Then, I also did it in secret. In secret, how did I do it? The person is ashamed, cannot ask. You know this too. But that person is in need. My Lord says in His verse: there are such people. They cannot ask. You know them by their faces.

'Hodja, how does one know them by their faces?' Look, let me describe it to you. How does one know them by their faces?

Their colour has turned pale from hunger. He wants to ask but cannot, he is ashamed. (?), he is in distress. A longing comes over him like this, as if (?), he immediately gives it up, bows his head, looks down at the ground. So, these people, you go right up to these people. Without anyone seeing or hearing, 'Do you need something? Did you wish for something? Do you have a difficulty, my child?' you say. He says, 'Yes. I had such and such a situation.' 'All right. Take it. Let no one see. Take it and meet your need.' Ah, look, this is it. The best of good deeds. Yes, this is how it is. Doing good according to the situation, according to the situation. According to the situation.

Yes.

Let's see. What did we write here? Let's read that too.

If, of the charity you spend on good for Allah, you can show it not to show off to people but to invite people to give charity, that is a very good thing. That is, if you can invite them to give charity, to give. Still, when you give charity, so that the poor who are in need are not humiliated, giving in secret is better for these benefactors. As I explained a moment ago. I explained both kinds. There is a person. For various reasons he has become helpless. He needs help. And the person who will help is not in a position to meet this person's need alone. In such a case he openly invites people to do good, (?).

If you meet the needs of the one in need, that too is a very good thing. We said this too in a different sense. A person has a need. My own situation does not allow for it. This person's situation truly has to be seen. To those around me, to my acquaintances: 'Community of Muslims, my children, there is such and such a person.

We have to help him.'

'Come on, an invitation to do good,' we say. We collect as much as he needs. We give it to him. How beautiful. All of them were invited to do good. This is good too. Such behaviour is an invitation for people to do good, and the person himself is a good example to people. But if you are able and, without saying anything to anyone, you meet a person's need, your place in Allah's sight is quite different. Yes.

We explained these in different senses.

Charity given or good deeds done like this, just as they raise people in Allah's sight, cover some of their sins. If you do a good deed in secret, Allah too covers those sins of yours. In the hereafter, that man from you a sin, you know, (?) sir, when he asks for his right, Allah Almighty gives him, in your place, a greater good. To that person. But mostly Allah Almighty covers all the sins between His essence and you. That is our Lord covering sins with His attribute Al-Ghaffar. Yes. Besides, if someone else has a right over you, our Lord gives to him until he is satisfied with you.

The wisdom of this being given in secret for a person. The person who does good and kind deeds becomes proud. His nafs (?). Even if it is for Allah, showing off mixes into it and the nafs enjoys it. It wants people to know the good and kind deeds he has done, and it takes pride in them. That is, the nafs wants people to know the good deeds you have done and makes you say them: 'I did this for so-and-so, I did that for such-and-such.' That is, 'I did this, I did that.'

If Allah Almighty gave you a hundred rewards, ninety-nine go and one remains with you. Yes. With a good and kind deed done in secret, such airs disappear, and the heart's contentment with the help given in secret, for Allah's pleasure, comes forth. Such a heart becomes intimate with Allah, and the person turns more to Allah Almighty. The feelings of such people are different too. In Allah's sight their ranks are high. So, because such people give their charity in secret, they gain both reward and the covering of some of their sins.

Here we wrote an inner text.

There is an inner text here.

So we wrote this with a feeling that came in that way. The inner state here is this. The heart's contentment with the help given in secret, the help given in secret, for Allah's pleasure, comes forth. This is an inner word. A person has reformed his nafs.

Allah Almighty: 'We place Our light in the hearts of those We love.' The people of whom He says neither the shadow of the East nor of the West falls on them. As they give charity, as people's faces smile, that which no one sees and no one hears, as the face of the person who was helped smiles, as he sees his heart open like a rose, (?), the person is pleased. I experience this sometimes. And I pray to Allah Almighty like this: 'O my Lord, all praise and glory to You for granting me this.

You could have given to him as You gave to me, my Allah. For making me the means of this, again all praise and glory to You,' I say. And my heart fills with peace, as if (?) into my heart it enters. That is how much I enjoy it.

I wrote those feelings here anyway. I wrote those feelings I experienced. My heart's contentment with the help given in secret, for Allah's pleasure, comes forth. Such a heart becomes intimate with Allah. And the person turns more to Allah Almighty. In this case, the love of Allah grows even more in a person's heart. And Allah Almighty keeps placing peace in that person's heart and keeps illuminating that person's heart.

What does Allah Almighty say in His verse? 'Whoever acts on what he knows, I teach him what he does not know,' He says. Yes. We act on what we know, and what we do not know our Lord guides us to by inspiring it in us.

The feelings of such people are different too, we say. In Allah's sight their ranks are high as well. So these are the inner words. So such people, because they give their charity in secret, gain both reward and the covering of some of their sins.

So then, look at the verses that I did not touch on, fearing they would harm the religion of Islam, the verses, at the reasons for giving charity from what Allah has given us. 'Well, Hodja, why don't you speak about it?'

As we said, those who exploit people's conscience have multiplied greatly. They swindle people by using religion as a tool.

For this reason, when we say 'help this person too', people would misunderstand it. I was very afraid they would say '(?) another swindler'. But I was saying I would explain it when the time came, God willing. Yes.

Giving charity in the way of Allah, giving, helping, helping one another, giving back to our Lord what our Lord gave, and buying paradise with their lives and their wealth. What a tremendous thing.

But in saying this, I am not saying, give away your wealth in charity so that you can no longer stand on your own feet. First you will take your precautions. Beyond your own needs, sir, you will give the surplus to people in charity.

Allah Almighty is aware of what you do, it says.

Since Allah Almighty knows for what purpose people do their good deeds, what passes through their hearts, He is aware of what you do, He says.

The meaning of being aware here is not the state of the deeds done, but that He is aware for what purpose the good and kind deeds are done according to people's intentions. Yes, here Allah Almighty, in the most beautiful way, informs us through His verses of what He knows. In this case, a person has no side left to escape to in Allah's sight. If a person deceives, he deceives only his own nafs, and these are people who are wrongdoers against their own selves.